English families moving north to save thousands in university fees

A NEW wave of English “fee refugees” could escape SNP plans to charge £36,000 for a degree by simply moving to Scotland with their families.

A new wave of English “fee refugees” could escape SNP plans to charge £36,000 for a degree []

Ministers sparked anger south of the Border with last month’s announcement that universities could soon charge those from other parts of the UK up to £9,000 a year while Scots and those from the EU pay nothing.

Education Secretary Mike Russell believes the move will address concerns over “fee refugees” heading north of the Border to study after English institutions got the go-ahead to charge up to £9,000 for tuition.

But yesterday it emerged the country’s estate agents are already receiving inquiries from English parents prepared to move to Scotland in a bid to save tens of thousands of pounds in tuition fees.

Ministers admit there is “no set timeframe” for living in Scotland to escape next year’s planned fees hike but insist they will try to weed out anyone who is unfairly cashing in.

It’s bound to influence a significant number of people in the future

Paul Wakefield

Agents, however, say the SNP is powerless to close the loophole and some places are already seeing the first signs of an influx of Border-hoppers.

Paul Wakefield, of Bell Ingram in Perth, said: “So far, there has been a trickle of customers citing university fees as a fairly important contributory factor to their moving home.

“For example, we have a family in North Yorkshire who are selling up their farm because they want to send their daughter to St Andrews.

“As the differential between the costs of English and Scottish education widens, we’re expecting this to become a more important factor. It’s bound to influence a significant number of people in the future.”

Michael Jones, of Knight Frank in Edinburgh, said the most likely buyers’ profile would be middle-aged parents with a number of children in their early teens.

They would already live in the north of England so a move would cause minimal disruption to their current jobs and social lives.

He added: “I’ve no doubt that there will be people who will move to Scotland because of the greater burden of tuition fees in England.”

A family with three teenagers living in Carlisle, Cumbria, could save up to £81,000 in fees simply by buying a home 10 miles away in Gretna, Dumfries-shire.

Similar savings could be made by moving from Berwick or Alnwick in Northumberland to Eyemouth or Burnmouth in Berwickshire.

Last night, ministers tried to warn off families from making the move, insisting that they may be breaking funding rules.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “There is no set timeframe for living in Scotland before you qualify for fees, you simply have to be ‘ordinarily resident’ in Scotland on August 1 and resident in the UK for at least three years.

“The Student Awards Agency for Scotland will not treat you as being ‘ordinarily resident’ if your main purpose in coming to Scotland was to receive full-time education and you would otherwise have been living elsewhere.”